What are five molecules of life?

Question

I need it ASAP because i have a science project to finish and it is due tomorrow.
October 12th,2006

Answer 1

Molecules of Life

Organic molecules

Life involves primarily organic molecules that are based on carbon. Carbon is very common and you should be familiar with its inorganic forms, e.g. graphite in pencils and diamonds in rings. In organic molecules however, carbon is combined with various other atoms to give more complex macromolecules, including the most complex molecules in existence, such as big proteins; or the longest, such as DNA.

Carbohydrates

These are the simplest of the four big classes of biochemicals (a subset of organic molecules) involved in life. Carbohydrates are the basic energy sources and stores for all organisms, and are also commonly structural. The simplest carbohydrates are the monomers called sugars, known technically as monosaccharides. These are six carbon sugars, in the form of a ring with a hydroxyl (-OH) groups on most of the carbons, and a ketone (C=O) or aldehyde (H-C=O) group on one carbon.

Lipids

Lipids are primarily involved in energy storage and membrane structure, but there are also waxes for protection against desiccation, and unusual lipids that function as hormones.

Most lipids are made up of monomers called fatty acids. These are long hydrocarbon chains, e.g. 20 carbons, with a carboxyl or acid group (HO-C=O) on the end.

Proteins

Proteins bring us to another level of complexity, where the building blocks are rather varied, and the final polymers are almost infinitely varied. Proteins are both the building blocks of cells and the enzymes that facilitate all cellular activities. They also do almost everything else, from being hormones to energy reserves of last resort.

Proteins can form the structures of the body directly, e.g. tendons from keratin, muscles from actin and myosin, blood with hemoglobin, enzymes such as trypsin, and hormones such as insulin, and many other things.

Nucleic Acids

These are fairly complex molecules, but there are only a few kinds. The basic organization is three separate units covalently linked together: a phosphate consisting of several hydroxyls and oxygens connected to a phosphorus atom capable of five bonds; a five-carbon sugar called ribose or deoxyribose (simply because one hydroxyl group is replaced with a hydrogen); and a ring containing nitrogens, called a base. This ring is the new component, and there are two kinds, single ring pyrimidines and double ring purines. Nucleotides are the combined phosphate, sugar, and base.

Single nucleotides are also involved as messengers of various signals in the body, the major one being cyclic AMP, where the single phosphate bonds around to the base forming a second ring. This is an internal messenger in many hormone signaling systems.

Answer 2

Molecules Of Life

Answer 3

Hydrogen
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Carbon
Sulfur

Answer 4

The origin of life has many promising lines of study but no single one is complete and generally accepted by the scientific community. The origin of life is not related to evolution. Nature doesn't have a rule that says genetic information must increase, nor a rule that demands organisms to become more complex. Biological evolution is brought about mostly by mutation and natural selection. Mutations are random, natural selection is not. A mutation almost always causes death to the mutated cell, usually very quickly. Only on a rare occasion does the mutated genetic code survive and rarer still is it beneficial to the host. .

Answer 5

Here are a couple that come to mind... given some of these are actually classes of molecules... anyway, take your pick:

DNA;

All types of RNA: -messenger, transport, interfering;

carbohydrates- glucose for one;

proteins- caspases are an interesting class involved in apoptosis;

ATP (adenosine triphosphate);

fatty acids;

triglycerides;

BTW- first two answers are listing ATOMs (+ you) and the third answer is listing senses.

Answer 6

Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen Nitrogen and Phosphorous. Sulphur is a close 6th.

Answer 7

caffeine
water
alcohol
protein
and chocolate

Answer 8

smell
taste
feel
hear
sight

Answer 9

C,O,H,Ca and you.